Despite fears their work would be cut short, the working group exploring alternatives to a $143 million plan to rework the Larkspur-Corte Madera stretch of Highway 101 has reclaimed two formerly canceled meetings and made steps toward a plan for the southbound lanes.

Monday was scheduled to be the final meeting of the group after its chair Alice Fredericks, a Tiburon city councilwoman and chairwoman of the Transportation Authority of Marin, reverted to the original schedule laid out in March, canceling two meetings because of a lack of money and time. However, working group members said the two meetings were reinstated without much discussion after it was revealed authority staff would be able to meet in mid-August after employee vacations. The group plans to meet Aug. 19 and tentatively Aug. 26.

Group members said Tuesday it was "weird" and "awkward" that Fredericks' reasons for canceling the meetings were never discussed. Fredericks could not be reached for comment. She previously said the group — which has spent $248,000 on consultants and staff — has run out of money for its facilitated meetings to explore alternatives to the highway plan formulated by the Transportation Authority of Marin and Caltrans.

Working group member and Larkspur City Councilman Brad Marsh said the group wants to keep meeting.

"We hope TAM will approve funding to allow us to continue to meet. At this point, I don't know that we really need to spend money on more consultants," Marsh said.

Working group members never got around Monday to discussing options for the northbound portion of the freeway and bicycle and pedestrian plans. Instead, bicycle and pedestrian advocates sat through four hours of discussion about the group's first agenda item — the southbound lanes.

Working group member and Corte Madera Councilwoman Carla Condon said it was strange that the authority staff gave a new presentation during the meeting on southbound options for the highway that no one had ever seen before.

"It was perplexing. We sat down at our table and for the first time we were presented with totally new proposals from TAM that we had not received any information on," Condon said. "I found that to be really rather disturbing."

The group was able to reach a consensus on what it would like to see on the southbound portion of the freeway. The group wants to study having two lanes exit onto Sir Francis Drake Boulevard from southbound Highway 101, having three lanes over the Corte Madera Creek from Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, keeping the Greenbrae pedestrian overcrossing intact, adding auxiliary lanes from Sir Francis Drake Boulevard to Tamalpais Drive and allowing a right turn from Fifer Avenue onto Nellen Avenue.

Working group member and Corte Madera Mayor Diane Furst said she was pleased the group made some progress.

"It was a very productive meeting with lots of discussion on substantive issues for the southbound plan. But we have more work to do, and I'm very pleased two more meetings have been scheduled," Furst said.

During the meeting, the group — after two voting sessions — opted not to study closing the Fifer Avenue exit. There was also no discussion about Larkspur Mayor Dan Hillmer and San Rafael Mayor Gary Phillips' proposal to ask the authority, and ultimately the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, to spend available funding on other projects, such as extending the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit from San Rafael to Larkspur and widening east Sir Francis Drake Boulevard.

Phillips said the timing just didn't seem right to discuss it.

"It's going to come up at the next meeting," Phillips said.

He did suggest the group forward along whatever options need further study to someone with more expertise in the freeway-building realm.

"We've debated high and low a lot of these points, but they are technical. I think we need an independent traffic engineer or consultant," Phillips said.

The group has until September to forward its recommendations to the authority, after which the authority has until Sept. 30 to propose to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission how it wants to spend the available $143 million slated for the project.

Condon said the group is doing its best, but there are still a lot of loose ends to tie up.

"I think we've got a very dedicated working group that is taking this whole process very seriously. We still just aren't sure what direction our efforts are going. Hopefully it's not all for not," Condon said.